question slightly more specific than that for those in the engineering related areas and who had the chance to compare with the academia world (research universities only, not teaching institutions…)
Obviously, the adv. with academia is
time management
once you’re tenure, you’re ‘safe’
rest seems to be a lot worse in academia…more stress (lots of different responsibilities), less cash, 3 months unpaid where you need to come with your external funding, etc…
so, what’s the truth? how does it look in the industry? (not talking about the last 2 weeks before a deadline if you work at nasa though…I know how that looks…sure ain’t no fun!)
I can’t imagine why the stress would be higher in academia. Most professors teach the same classes every year, seems pretty laid back from that standpoint. I have no experience with university research. I personally rarely know what will be filling my week when it starts, but I am in somewhat of a customer support role so the emergency of the day is pretty much a way of life. The pay can be better but not always, if you get a 3 month “vacation” then doens’t that just mean you stretch the same salary across a year? I would look at the differences more in what you are doing. Do you like to build stuff or do you like to work out difficult problems? If you don’t love your work the rest is moot.
as a student, all you see is the teaching part, which accounts for close to nothing comes tenure time…you can be a lousy teacher…if you bring in a lot of external funding, you will get tenure…teaching accounts for maybe 20% of our time (in research institutions)…
the 3 months are everything but vacations…you need to do a lot of research during this time, write grants etc…so instead of spending 20% on teaching and 80% on research related activities, you have 100% on research etc.
I work in what we call a structured transactions environment, I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say I am in “deal” environment. Those of you that are in mergers and acquisitions and the like know what I mean. Which means when a deal is in the works it is high stress, high energy, tough deadlines, etc. Other times are much more laid back, I don’t mean come in at 9 or 10 and leave at 3 or 4, more like come in at 8:30 and leave at 6:00. I have been able to manage my training around this type of environment, since my industry is fairly predictable (last month of a each quarter is busy but other than that it is managable). All in all not a bad life, I do wish I could do something where I could make the same amount of money but would be more “sport” specific.
I debated whether to say this, Francois, because I do understand the working stress that we all experience…
But my gut reaction to this is…
All of that “stress” pales in comparison to facing daily convoys and patrols in areas known to be insurgent hotbeds…wondering if every guardrail or fresh dig on the roadside is an IED…and last week two guys of your unit were lost to sniper fire…you had to write the letters home to the families…and you haven’t slept in two days while planning for a major offensive into the another town stronghold…and enduring this sort of stuff for months on end…
Next to that, the stuff we all face here, the thousand-and-one extra responsibilities (do I REALLY have to be a Substance Abuse Counselling Officer? or a voting rep? or go take notes for the boss at a meeting across town? or travel to some equipment demonstration in the D.C. beltway? etc. etc. etc.)…seem pretty trivial.
I apologize if this sounds patronizing or condescending, Francois (and all)…It is not meant to be at all…I just thank heaven for every day that my feet are here, on soil where I can llve in and leave my house and go about my day in relative safety even when I KNOW the day is going to suck…
I come from industry and now work at a university in a reseach lab/shop,same job duties but instead of normal industry deadlines we have professors with unrealistic deadlines,i do not see much stress at there level,i do see some at mine. One thing that has supprised me is how petty and childish most professors are,i worked in a plant with two to three hundred people and knew everyones name and spoke to all of them,at my university i will walk by the same professors for eleven years and still can not get them to speak.
When i worked in industry i did work more hours,but i allways knew what i was doing was important,now i can work on something for six months only to find the job has sat in a professors desk and will never be used.
Please over look any misspelled words or bad grammer,i do know who i am dealing with!